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Roe v. Wade (pre-decision)

[Credit: Kenny Holston for The New York Times]
The right to abortion, established almost 50 years ago in the landmark decision Roe v. Wade, is about to be overturned by a majority of the U.S. Supreme Court, according to a leaked report published by Politico. Read the Politico story here. What's your opinion? Respond!

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Responses to this Challenge

May 23
poetry challenge: Roe v. Wade (pre-decision)

olive trees (with hands)

i.
the government has no right to shove their hands down my throat / & pull out my bloody beating heart / as they dress themselves in white / & pretend they're planting olive trees in our soil /

ii.
would you deny someone the right / to talk / to drink / to eat / to walk / to run / ? / then do not tell me what i can & can not do with my body. 

iii.
you cannot force someone / to donate blood or a kidney / so how / how / can you force someone to give birth

iv.
i found a typewriter on the street today / & then a fountain pen / & then a pencil, a little farther away / & i eventually found / stone. / is this the way we're going? / backwards until / we're reduced to / 

v.
nothing.
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Posted: 05.23.22
May 05
poetry challenge: Roe v. Wade (pre-decision)

No is no

Crying, screaming, begging
All for my freedom
All for my own bodily autonomy
Because old white men want to take it away

So when they provoke me
I'll kick and scream
Throw a fit
Becasue I will not settle

The adults that taught us consent
Are taking it away
But I will not put up with that

Because no is no
And I won't let them steal away my womb to someone who doesn't have one
So no
Absolutely not

My body is my own
Not the governments
Mine

So young people out there
Yell, kick, and scream
Throw a damn fit
Cry, beg, and make a fool

Because you don't need to be the majority
You just need to yell louder than everyone else
Espeacially when no is no
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Posted: 05.05.22
May 04
poetry challenge: Roe v. Wade (pre-decision)

You-ter-Us

There is an "us" in ut-er-us
But the "us" is not for you
There's no room in my womb for an old white man,
For the one percent, for the few.

"E pluribus unum!" is our cry
Although the few seem to get to make the choice
As to whether we have the right to choose
As to whether we get a voice.

And who is this we who I'm speaking for
Who is the "us" in the name?
We are the people of the future, the past
We are the lonesome, the shamed.

We are the ones who couldn't or wouldn't
Or simply did not want
To carry a child to term, to give birth
In this room, we're the elephant.

And although I've never gone into
A Planned Parenthood and feared
The rows of protestors outside and felt
The terror as the time drew near,
I am one
And we are one
Yes, we are one and the same
And we will not sit in silence as you
Forget our cry, our names.
 
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Posted: 05.04.22
May 03
poetry challenge: Roe v. Wade (pre-decision)

My Body, My Choice

You do not have a right
to anything on this flesh-colored landscape
of sheer beauty 
that is my body.
I have worked so hard
to learn to love myself
to learn how to be okay with my body
to learn that I am beautiful in my own way;
not in the way where
I have a slim waist
              perfectly straight hair
              heart-shaped lips that anyone would want to kiss
because isn't that what beauty is-
packaged perfection that expires
once you get ahold of it?
I love every inch of myself
I claim every inch of myself as my own
and no one else's.

I am not a plastic doll
I am not meant to be used as a toy
I am not going to be a jar of porcelain to anyone-
beautiful to look at,
fragile to the touch, 
doesn't do too much
other than stay silent and 
let others gawk and talk about 
as if it's not there. 

I have a right to myself
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Posted: 05.03.22